


Adrenaline

by DualExistence



Series: DarkSide [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Ashe is only mentioned once but just in case, Blackwatch Era, Character Analysis, Gen, I write Genji as sociopathic and I will go down with this headcanon, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Updated April 2019 because I didn't enjoy the original version anymore, VERY VERY VAGUE MCGENJI, also this fic is kinda vent, anti-social behaviour, basically this is hyper empath x sociopath and I love the dynamics, becoming friends, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 22:19:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16627469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DualExistence/pseuds/DualExistence
Summary: Genji has been a Blackwatch agent for less than 4 months and he has already antagonised half of the Swiss base with his severely anti-social behaviour. Reyes has to suspend him temporarily after he overstepped all boundaries of the organisation to finish an important mission, but he is fully aware that punishment has absolutely no effect on Genji whatsoever.His only option for Genji to finally start to cooperate is to involve McCree, though Reyes tried everything for his best agent and protégé to never have to interact with someone as dangerous and unpredictable as the cyborg. He expects the worst to happen, but somehow McCree and Genji seem to get along.





	Adrenaline

“Get this fucking psychopath away from me!”

Genji sighed. The last thing he needed was Dr Ziegler’s judgmental eyes on him as she tried to calm the injured Blackwatch agent yelling at him.  
  
He leaned against the wall of her office, waiting for the doctor to say something – _anything_ – that would give him permission to leave, but she had insisted on him to stay.

“You disgusting – argh – monster! Why is he even allowed here, he’s bloody dangerous!”  
  
The man didn’t stop throwing insults at him, but the cyborg was willfully ignorant.  
Growing up in the Shimada clan, he was used to daily verbal abuse, another person calling him an abomination left him completely cold.  
  
“It would certainly help your injury if you would sit still and let me treat you, Agent García,” Dr Ziegler said firmly to the man sitting on her examination table while she cleaned the wound on his abdomen.

“I will calm down if I never have to see this freak again on base!”

“Oh, I can ask Commander Reyes to ship you back to Grand Mesa if that’s what you want,” Genji finally broke his own silence with an almost bored undertone, which made the doctor turn back towards him and shooting him a glare.  
The cyborg raised an eyebrow but didn’t add anything else.  
  
She let out a sigh and brought her attention back to her patient.  
“This was a precise stab wound that did not hurt any of your internal organs. I just need to stitch you up and you will be fit again in a few weeks.” She hummed while observing the cleaned wound, though she had a really hard time not sounding stressed.  
  
Stressed because it hadn’t been the first time the cyborg caused her so much trouble. Bringing back an agent that he admitted having injured _himself_ though was clearly eating away on the little patience she had left for him.  
  
“Well, I’m really lucky that the bastard did not fucking kill me then.”  
“Calm down, García,” Dr Ziegler said through gritted teeth. She pushed herself on her chair towards the cabinet in which she stored various surgical tools, changed her gloves to some fresh ones and prepared needle and thread.  
  
“So,” she turned her attention back to Genji leaning against the wall. “You stabbed Agent García. You really… you really did that?”  
  
She was clearly at her limit.  
  
“I did what had to be done to get the mission objective secured, Dr Ziegler,” Genji replied mechanically, arms folded across his chest.  
  
“It’s-“ She made a gesture to articulate how he disregarded all of her principles but ultimately decided not to continue arguing with him. It was useless and Genji was grateful for her to finally accept it. He wouldn’t change his mind.  
  
“You know what, I don’t want to hear anything from you. Or see you. You are fine and I can check on your toxicity levels later today. Get out of my office and report to Commander Reyes.”  
  
“Fine.”  
  
That was all he wanted to hear, after being forced by worried Overwatch agents to carry a screaming García to Dr Ziegler’s office in the medical ward of the Swiss Headquarters.  
Genji wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. Or anyone in particular.

 

* 

 

Half an hour later Genji was seated in the debriefing room, Blackwatch Commander Reyes and Overwatch leader Morrison on the other side of the table.  
He knew he was going to get in trouble for what he did, but he honestly didn’t care.  
  
All he did was _save_ the mission that García fucked up due to his incompetence and Genji had told them from the beginning that he didn’t think the guy was suited for an infiltration like this one.  
They didn’t listen.  
So Genji had to do what had to be done and he felt no remorse for it.

“Your report, Agent Shimada.” Reyes started, his voice having its professional controlled tone but Genji could see his expression reading clear disappointment.  
  
“Genji”.  
  
“Fine, _Genji_ ,” he sighed. “I only heard rumours of what actually happened and I swear to God that I do not want to believe them, for your sake. But you have been an agent for less than four months and I all get is complaints.”  
He sighed again. “From _everyone_ you were assigned to work with. I am _really_ trying to give you a chance after what happened to you but you need to stop acting like you can do whatever the hell you want. Black ops missions aren’t a free pass… for _that_.”  
  
Genji just stared back at the two men in front of him, no reaction visible in his eyes, the rest of his face hidden behind a metal mask.  
  
With his silence, Morrison shuffled through the folder that had Genji’s files, grabbed a pen from the desk and wrote something on his clipboard before he started talking.  
  
“We can get back to that later. Please tell us what exactly happened on the mission, and what made you decide to break the rules of operation.”

  
Genji leaned back in the chair, hands hidden in the pockets of his Blackwatch hoodie.

“Agent García and I infiltrated the meeting point of our target successfully and I was about to assassinate them when the idiot managed to activate the alarm system of the building. We were cornered. Instead of fighting, I played smart and lied about being a defector, stabbed García to make things look believable and left him there to get behind the bodyguards to their safe zone. Once the threat was evaded, I killed the Talon agent and took the files we were after. I then stole his key card, took an escape route so they wouldn’t notice anything, picked up García who was unconscious by the time and called our pilot to get us back to Geneva.”  
  
A while of silence followed after he finished his report, only interrupted by Morrison’s pen moving over the paper.  
  
Reyes pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh. He let his partner finish his notes before he moved onto the questions on Genji’s report.

  
“One thing I really admire about you is how you can manipulate because it is very useful on the job. But was it really  _necessary_  to injure an agent?”

“Certainly,” Genji answered. “I needed to make sure they believed the defection story. Nothing works better than backstabbing the people you were supposed to be  _loyal_  to.”  
  
He spilt those words out like a curse, his whole body aching from the sensation of phantom pain as he thought of it, how he had experienced it first-hand.  
  
Another moment of silence followed.  
  
Morrison eventually looked up from his notes to face Genji.  
“We want to make you are aware that the safety of our agents has the highest priority. Actively injuring someone for the sake of a mission is…”  
“Morally wrong, I know,” Genji replied shortly.  
“It is against our codex and the rules you agreed to when signing the contract,” Reyes finished the sentence for Morrison.  
  
“I finished the mission because García fucked it up. I told you that I do not want to work with anyone on infiltration missions because I do it best all by myself, but _you_ didn’t listen and that’s why we are here now,” Genji countered.  
  
Morrison almost slammed the clipboard on the desk. He didn’t let any anger reach his tone, but he had a hard time hiding it on his face.  
“ _Agent Shimada_. You have to abide by the rules of the organisation and your opinion doesn’t matter on that. You will have to face the consequences for your actions.”  
  
Genji scoffed at them, a light chuckle escaped his lips but succumbed under the metal covering most of his face. He didn’t care about any consequences; what he had done had been absolutely necessary.  
Even if his boss disagreed with him, _he_ certainly wasn’t given much a choice but to join Blackwatch in the first place, so who were they to tell him what he should and shouldn’t do?  
It was that simple.  
  
“I was precise where to place my blade when stabbing García. I know how to injure someone without it being lethal. I don’t see the fucking problem. We would have lost the files Overwatch had been after for so long if I hadn’t acted the way I did,” he explained.  
  
Morrison wanted to say something, the corner of his mouth twitched as he tried to keep anger and frustration not showing on his face.

“Jack, this is my business,” Reyes said to him, then turned his attention back to Genji, visibly exasperated.  
“Listen Genji, I am grateful that the mission was a success because of your work, I really am. But everyone on base is asking me daily why we even tolerate you. And you come back with this. I can’t make any excuses for your behaviour anymore without half of our agents starting a riot, so please, _please_ do me a favour and get a grip of yourself.”  
  
He stared into Genji’s glaring red eyes, his voice had something vaguely of a plead.  
  
“I am suspending you from Blackwatch operations for the next three weeks.”  
  
Genji groaned loudly, about to protest because it was the last thing he needed, being locked up in the headquarters full of people that pissed him off with their staring and whispering behind his back and the eternal boredom he was constantly fighting next to the pain and dysphoria torturing him daily. Missions were distracting.

  
Reyes finally figured how to push his buttons to make him behave and Genji hated it.

“Go to Dr Ziegler and let her send you over to a psychotherapist to work on your behavioural issues. Are we clear now?”

He felt defeated but didn’t let it show.

“Fine. Can I leave now?” he asked snappishly.

“No.” Morrison interrupted him as Genji was already getting up from his chair.

“Commander Reyes and I will discuss who you will be assigned to after your suspension and you will have a meeting with them later to make sure you are going to cooperate with them. You can use the time to think about your actions.”

Genji let himself fall back on the chair.  
“If the entire base hates my guts anyway that’s gonna be interesting, but sure,” he answered nonchalantly.

“Quit the back-talking.” Morrison was furious but his voice calm. Reyes put a hand on his co-worker's shoulder, a gesture for him to leave their troublemaker agent alone for now.

The two took their notes and Genji’s files with them to the room next door, leaving him with his thoughts alone.  
Genji made sure that Morrison could still see him putting his feet onto the table, signalising that no matter what kind of important person he was, he would _never_ bend to anyone’s will.  
  
Morrison almost slammed the door shut in anger.

  
* 

 

“Absolutely no respect for authority,” the blonde commander mumbled through gritted teeth as he dropped the files onto the desk in front of them.

Gabriel nodded defeatedly. He felt trapped in his own decisions, those who he had asked Jack for advice in the past but then backed off, knowing that he should not pull him, his best friend and partner, the head of Overwatch, into such difficult things that only Blackwatch should be taken responsible for.  
The Genji project _was_ such a thing.  
  
And as far as Gabriel could see, Jack wasn’t really fond of it either.  
  
He sighed, leaned against the desk, his gaze wandered over the files on the desk to Jack and back to the files, trying to find the right words to speak.  
  
“He is… difficult. Really difficult,” he began. “I underestimated how bad it is, but he is better with us than out there in the world causing havoc.”

Jack rubbed his temples.  
“I get that,” he mumbled, his voice tired. “Shimada is… unpredictable and seems to feel no remorse for his actions but he is the only real weapon we have against his family’s empire. His behaviour, however, is a serious issue.”

Gabriel took the files from the desk again and flicked through the papers.  
“Honestly, I don’t wonder why the clan even tried to get rid of him…”

Jack looked back at him. “What do you mean?”

The Blackwatch commander showed him one of the papers, a report that summarised Genji’s criminal past in all its detail, with a note written by one of Overwatch’s psychologists asking for further evaluation on him – urgently.  
So far, Genji had been refusing all psychological help though.  
  
“See the note?” he asked Jack, who nodded silently.  
Gabriel put the files back on the desk. His friend kept silent, brooding over what to do about the situation.  
   
“And what is your plan? Giving him what he wants will just enable him more, and it is too risky to kick him out of the organisation, no matter how uncooperative he is,” he said after a while.  
  
Gabriel didn’t look at him. He thought about the past, how he had handled a _similar_ situation back then. His eyes had focused on an invisible point on the wooden desk until he took out his communicator and pressed the call button.  
  
 “Jesse McCree, to my office. I give you five minutes.”  
“Gabe, are you serious-“  
“Am on my way, boss.” McCree’s voice from the communicator interrupted Jack.  
“Gabe, by all means-“

“I know what you want to say, Jack, and I agree wholeheartedly with you, but Jesse is probably the only solution I have to our problem,” Gabriel interrupted Jack and picked the files back up from the desk.  
  
“Let me take care of this now, and you get some rest. I’ll see you later.”

Ending their short conversation abruptly, he opened the door to the briefing room again where Genji was still sitting idle, cybernetic feet on the table. Gabriel smacked his lower leg with the folder in his hand and told him to get up.  
  
“To my office, now. And if I see your feet up on a table again that is not the one in your room, I will add an extra week to your suspension.”

“Sure,” Genji replied apathetically.

“I know you don’t care what I have to say, but it would help us both if you would act at least a tiny bit less like an asshole,” Gabriel returned a bit unnerved.

 “Whatever you say, boss.”

He knew Genji wasn’t listening.

  
* 

 

Overwatch, as well as Blackwatch agents’ eyes, were following them as Gabriel walked through the corridors of the HQ with Genji by his side. They tried to be inconspicuous but he could feel how they looked at Genji with fear, distrust, even pity.  
The cyborg didn’t seem to care. Or at least didn’t let it show, though Gabriel was sure that somewhere behind those protective walls, deep inside his heart, he was hurting.  
  
Jesse McCree had already been waiting for the two in front of the door of Gabriel’s office. The young American greeted his boss with a nonchalant wave of his hand but froze the moment his eyes met with those cold, red eyes of Genji’s.  
  
With a quick tap of his key card, he unlocked the door to his office and the two young men followed him in silence into the dark office, the lights turning on automatically with a soft flicker as they entered.  
Gabriel gestured for them to sit in chairs in front of his desk, then heedlessly threw Genji’s files atop the documents scattered on the surface and sat in his own chair.  
  
“So.” He began without losing much time with unnecessary small talk.  
“Agent Genji Shimada, this is Agent Jesse McCree, your new partner for future missions.”  
  
Gabriel already expected to be interrupted by the cyborg, to be talked back to, but Genji just glanced over to Jesse for a second, then turned his attention back to the Blackwatch leader.  
  
“Jesse, I know you were looking forward to the next mission I told you about, but I will need you here. I’ll give you the next three weeks off duty for now. Genji has been… suspended for the meantime and he can tell you the reason later.”  
  
He could see Jesse raising an eyebrow under the brim of his hat – the damn thing he had asked him to stop wearing indoors out of respect, but his protégé had always ignored him on dress code rules, so Gabriel had given up on that a long time ago – but keeping his mouth shut, even though the protest was lying on his lips.  
Jesse glanced over to Genji for the blink of an eye – curious, yet cautious as well.  
  
“I want you two to get to know each other a bit before I will send you on missions together. Genji, you won’t be working with anyone else from now on. But I want you to cooperate, so I won’t tolerate any more bullshit from you, do we understand each other?” Gabriel directed his speech at the cyborg again.  
  
“Could you stop talking to me like I am a kid, I am almost twenty-seven.”  
  
He noticed Jesse chuckle at the comment from the corner of his eye but the glare Genji shot him made him fall silent immediately.  
Gabriel chose to ignore it.

“Is that everything you called me for, boss?” Jesse asked.

“That and another thing, but later.” He replied, then turned his attention to the cyborg. “Genji, are you alright with this?”

“I will try,” Genji answered shortly.

Gabriel leaned back in his chair, relieved over having at least achieved _something_ with the troublemaker that was unfortunately too useful for the organisation to be expelled.  
  
“That’s a start. You can leave, I need to talk with Jesse alone now,” he said, a little bit of thankfulness audible in his voice.  
  
The cyborg got up, turned his back on the two and vanished without a noise.

As the door closed, Gabriel shoved the file on his desk towards Jesse, before starting the rather difficult conversation he was about to have with his best agent.

  
“That’s…” Jesse started, but the words died in his mouth.

“Yes,” Gabriel answered the unspoken question.  
“Genji Shimada. The younger brother of the successor of the Shimada clan, the one you helped me to extract from the castle in Hanamura almost two years ago.”  
  
Jesse held the files with distrustfulness before daring a look inside. Gabriel trusted him, but files of other agents weren’t something he was usually given.  
  
“You probably wondered why I have sent you on so many missions in the past six months without giving you much break. The thing is… I didn’t want you to run into him or interact with him at all but… I am running out of options. He is difficult and I think you might be the only one who could bring him on the right path because you had been similarly uncooperative like that when I recruited you,” he continued.  
  
Jesse browsed through the pages, then closed the folder and put it back on the desk.  
“Are you gonna tell me why you didn’t want us to interact?”  
  
Gabriel cleared his throat, then took the folder back and put it away.  
  
“He’s dangerous, that’s why.”  
  
Jesse furrowed his eyebrows but didn’t try to argue with him this time. Gabriel trusted him handling many dangerous situations where Jack and Ana were calling him out for involving Jesse with them, but he knew what the young man was capable of.  
But when it came to Genji, he needed to warn Jesse what he was getting involved with.  
  
“Absolutely callous, remorseless, shows no signs of empathy or guilt. He has a complete lack of morality and will bend everyone and everything to his will. You won’t even notice when he is manipulating you until it is too late. He acts very impulsively and aggressively. Unfortunately, he is very skilled and we need him for Blackwatch. He is the only chance we got to dismantle his family’s criminal empire, after all,” he explained further.  
“I want you to be really fucking careful with him. Understood?”

Jesse adjusted himself on the chair.  
“Do you want to hear my opinion on that?” he asked.

“Go for it,” Gabriel answered.

The young man made a clicking noise with his tongue, looking at the files on the Commander’s desk before his eyes wandered right back to his face.  
  
“Well, how do you think  _you_  would react if you were almost killed by your own brother, then wake up a year later in a different country? If you were told your only chance of survival is to become a cyborg, and you have to sign a contract with the black ops division of a world peace organisation? Overwatch basically stripped him of his bodily autonomy to make him a living weapon, so… him being uncooperative and aggressive is totally normal. I think you are reading too much into this.”  
  
Gabriel sighed. Of course, Jesse would reply something like that – gifted with too much empathy for a single human being, yet the wit to not fall victim to his own feelings, for most of the time at least.  
  
“You’re… going to be dealing with a textbook sociopath, Jesse,” he said firmly.  
“Not even eight hours ago, he stabbed an agent on a mission after said agent messed up. Genji showed no sign of guilt for it, nor did he even admit that he made a mistake or that he broke the rules.”  
  
“Oh, García is a fuckin’ idiot though, I’d stab him too,” Jesse laughed and something in Gabriel’s heart ached, feeling like he was going to regret this decision very soon.  
  
“Damn it, Jesse, I am serious. I don’t want to collect you in pieces from somewhere because you pissed him off. All I want you to do is be careful when interacting with him, especially when it comes to underestimating him. Genji can be so unpredictable, he already antagonised half the entire base.”  
His voice was a bit too erratic for his own liking and he could see in Jesse’s expression that he saw him struggling.  
  
The young man exhaled, looking to the side before facing the Commander again.  
  
“Don’t worry too much, boss, I’ll manage,” he said.  
Gabriel almost wanted to believe him, but his mind didn’t let him.  
  
“Jesse… Open your heart to him and he will eat your soul. Just… be careful. That’s all I am asking.”  
  
“If I could handle Ashe, I can handle him as well,” Jesse returned with a self-confident smile.

“I will remember that when I visit you in the medical department next week.”  
Gabriel couldn’t resist a smile this time either, despite the sickness in his stomach not wanting to disappear.

“Anything else?”

“No, that’s it, I just said there’s more so I could talk to you alone. Enjoy your break but remember that Genji must not leave the base.”

   
*

 

After dinner, Genji had to pay Dr Ziegler another visit at her office to get his toxicity levels tested. It was another thing he had to get used to, being connected to strange machines regularly so his organic body wouldn’t reject the artificial parts that kept him alive and functioning. It was a rather tiring process that he wished to avoid but couldn’t.  
At least the doctor didn’t insist on a conversation, so the whole ordeal went without a single word spoken between them and Genji could withdraw in peace to his favourite place on base.  
  
The training range was located on the lowest level. Partially underground, it was nicely ventilated and illuminated by artificial light that resembled actual daylight. The hall with its high ceiling was a somewhat interesting and comfortable place – at least for him – compared to the rest of the rather sterile and boring looking Swiss headquarters.  
  
Genji wanted to practice because it was the only thing besides actual missions that distracted him from the eternal boredom, discomfort and dysphoria and agony of his trauma that slowly consumed his heart.  
  
Six months had passed since his enhancement was completed and he started this new life as a hybrid between human and machine.  
It took him a lot of mental strength to get out of bed every day, waking up with phantom pain where his legs and right arm used to be, how the nerves got numb when artificial met real skin.  
  
Showering was the worst of all things. He hated being dirty, so he forced himself under the water every time it was necessary.  
Genji had panicked when he first saw himself naked, shattered his bathroom mirror; he couldn’t leave his room for the rest of that day.  
  
It wasn’t like he was scared. It was more like he couldn’t recognise himself anymore. The man – was he still one? – in the mirror was a stranger that controlled his body and he was stuck in a never-ending nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from.  
~~The man~~ … The monster.  
  
His new body was a weapon.  
He had agreed to that when he signed the contract with Overwatch and Blackwatch but…  
  
Reality was different.  
The reality of being a living weapon was cruel.  
  
Reality had no mercy.  
  
_Reality does not forgive._  
  
A lesson that Genji had already learned as a child, but whenever he thought he had tricked it when he thought he was in control he was proven wrong.  
  
He couldn’t take it anymore. He wouldn’t let Overwatch decide for the rest of this miserable life what he could and couldn’t do – and as long as they relied on _him_ , they wouldn’t dare to restrain him.  
  
And if they did?  
  
_Then they shall try_ , Genji thought.  
  
  
He sat for a while on the ground, observing his right arm like he always did before his daily training ritual. The enhancement hid folded shuriken inside his underarm, simply controlled by the connection to his brain that made him able to reload within milliseconds. He was told that it needed maintenance every other month, but so far it wasn’t causing any trouble yet. Maybe because it was new.  
  
_Could he compare himself now to computer hardware?_  
  
He didn’t give it a second thought and instead started his training.  
  
His movement was fast and precise.  
They had enhanced his vision to get used to the agility of his new body, for him to see and predict movement faster than an average human could. He hit almost all of his shots against the training bots.

For now, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing himself improve. The more he worked on his abilities, the more lethal he became – and the more Overwatch would rely on him.  
Genji wondered if they were aware of it, that in the end, Morrison and Reyes needed him more than he needed them.  
That they completely missed the fact that he was the one in control.  
  
He walked to the next area where more bots were located when his training was interrupted by someone whistling at him.  
Genji chose to ignore the noise at first, but the disturbing one knew he had heard him.  
  
“There you are, partner.”  
  
It was McCree.  
  
Genji didn’t turn towards him. With a voice as sharp as the shuriken in his hand, answered: “Don’t get any ideas. I am not your _partner_ or anything like that.”  
His focus was still devoted to the bots moving around him as McCree decided to invade his personal space by walking onto the platform.

“Whatever then. How're things?” the man asked.

“Small talk isn’t my thing, leave me alone.” Genji’s voice became snarky.

“I see but throwing knives at bots apparently is.”

“The bots don’t try to talk to me at least.”

Genji threw the shuriken towards one but he missed, making him curse in his native language.

“You know that they _can_ talk to you though, right?” McCree replied.

“They  _what_ -?”  
Now Genji turned around to him, no emotion crossing his shining red eyes as he looked at the other waving in direction of one of the bots with a nonchalant “Howdy” and the bot waved back with its little arm, greeting him in a robotic voice.  
  
“Oh”, was all the cyborg could bring over his lips at the realisation.  
  
McCree had to chuckle at the reaction and Genji could sense the grip of his robotic hand getting tighter around the shuriken in his hand, though he knew better than injuring two agents on the same day.  
  
“Okay, now that I destroyed your worldview about our cute lil’ training bots, are you willing to talk to me now?”  
  
The Blackwatch agent dared to take another step closer to him, holding both his hands up in the air as if he was trying to prove himself innocent.  
  
Genji took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood for this, but McCree probably wouldn’t give up as easily as others who tried to get through him.

“What do you want?” he asked sharply without looking at him.

“You heard what Commander Reyes said, I am supposed to befriend you.”

“I am not interested.”

“Am not gonna force myself on you, I promise. But I think I can relate to your situation a lil’, so please give me a chance.”  
  
_Doubt_.  
  
It sounded so fucking _fake_.  
  
Genji let out a low growl, then let the shuriken slide back into the slot on his cybernetic arm and walked towards his new ‘partner’.

McCree was almost a head taller than him.  
Thick, dark brown curls showed under the black hat which matched the rest of the mostly dark-toned Blackwatch uniform.  
His eyes were a warm colour of soft brown that matched his tanned skin. Genji noticed the bit of stubble that was showing between the neatly groomed beard – and then realised that he was staring.  
He quickly averted his gaze to the side, when his eyes fell upon the revolver holster on McCree’s hip. That one sparked his interest.  
  
“So… you want a chance, huh?” he asked carefully.

McCree noticed where Genji was looking and moved his hand over the holster.  
“Hey, she’s not a toy.”

“She?” Genji replied confusedly. That was a gun, and if he remembered correctly, objects had the pronoun ‘it’ in the English language.

“Peacekeeper,” McCree replied, removing the weapon from the holster.  
It was a pretty revolver.  
Genji’s stare seemed to intimidate the other a little, as McCree hid ‘her’ behind his back just a second later, taking a step away from him.

“You’re looking at her like a hungry dragon. That's… weird,” he commented awkwardly.

“Half of the base considers me a freak anyway, you thinking the same won’t make much of a difference,” Genji murmured more to himself than McCree, his eyes lingering still on his opponent’s bent arm.

“I wouldn’t consider you a freak, but… most people don’t look at weapons like you do.” McCree replied, his voice still had that hint of awkwardness.

“So?”

Genji finally looked him back in the eyes, and he could see McCree’s cheeks flush before the man escaped his gaze on him by putting the gun back in its – _her_  – holster.

“If you want to ask to shoot her, the answer is no,” he said firmly.

 _The answer is actually yes_ , Genji made a mental note.  
He would manipulate McCree sooner or later to give him the gun. Maybe not today, but in the following week probably, if he was supposed to spend time with him anyway.  
  
“Sure,” he ended their conversation and his attention shifted back to the training bots.  
  
It didn’t last very long though.  
The thought of Peacekeeper in his hands didn’t leave his mind, and as his shots grew more inaccurate the more he tried to focus, he gave up and turned back to McCree. He was still standing there, arms crossed and watching Genji in silence.

“Actually, instead of standing there being a waste of air, you could make yourself useful.”

McCree huffed but didn’t add anything to give Genji more fuel to his fire. “What do you want me to do then?” he asked a little unnerved.

“Entertain me,” Genji answered, his voice had almost something _flirty_.  
“I want you to try shooting me with Peacekeeper.”

“You want me to  _what_?!”

McCree grabbed the shoulder of a nearby bot to keep his balance.

“Dude, sorry but – listen, you injured someone today and the first thing that comes to your mind after getting’ a three-week suspension is  _wanting to get shot_? Are you high? Or suicidal?”

“No, not that. I just want to test my reaction time,” Genji answered, still with that playful undertone in his voice.

“I am  _not_  going to shoot you. Cyborg or not, and I actually  _do_  feel guilty when hurting people,” McCree declared.  
  
There it was again – his heart went up in flames abruptly, rage consuming his entire body within milliseconds.

“Then  _piss off_ , McCree.”  
  
Genji’s words were sharp as a blade.

The tension between the two filled the entire training range, so thick that one could almost touch it with bare hands.

They stared at each other for a solid minute until McCree broke the silence.  
“You can provoke and insult me all you want, it is not gonna work with me. Cut that shit out.”  
He was awfully calm.

“Then maybe don’t guilt trip me?”  
  
Genji took one, two steps closer to him but the other didn’t seem to be intimidated by his fire at all.

“When did I guilt trip you?” McCree asked.

 “ _I actually do feel guilty when hurting people_  is pretty much an accusation.”

Genji wished for McCree to reply, but he didn’t.  
  
The man didn’t feint about Genji’s provocation being useless on him.  
He didn’t bend to his will.  
No, he decided to just walk away from him without losing another word and it made Genji even more furious.  
The cyborg bit his lip, which the other wouldn’t have seen anyway under his face mask, even if he had paid him another look.  
  
Maybe he had Reyes and Morrison under control, but McCree didn’t play his game.  
Genji couldn’t avert his gaze, he just kept staring at him as he was about to leave the hall.  
  
He wanted to yell something but his voice didn’t seem to work at all.  
His thoughts were all over the place – the fire inside him was burning, consuming everything within him, around him, about to eat everything alive.  
But it couldn’t touch McCree.  
  
The man was still standing there, hand above the button that unlocked the door but for some reason, he didn’t leave.  
  
It seemed as if they were both frozen in time, Genji not being able to move, his eyes locked on McCree at the door not paying him any attention.  
Then he pressed the button for the door to open and the cyborg finally yelled his name.

McCree glanced over to him, the sound of a gunshot mixed with the echo of Genji’s voice, sweeping like a tsunami all over the range.  
  
The cyborg could feel the sweet pain of his artificial hand burning from catching the bullet mid-air, his whole body in flames from the intense adrenaline rush, but a different one.  
Not one of anger, but of happiness.

  
He laughed. He started laughing wholeheartedly, he had to sit on the ground to not fall over from the joy that filled him, making him feel  _almost_  human.  
  
“Haha, good aim, McCree… hahaha…”  
He dropped the bullet on the ground with a ringing  _tink-tink_.

“Damn adrenaline junky,” McCree whispered and shook his head, waving him goodbye before he left Genji alone on the training range.  
  
Genji had to lie on the ground for a bit. At least no one else besides him got the idea to go downstairs to the training range at this hour, so he would be alone, left in peace.

He stared at the bullet that he had caught with his hand. His reaction time was _impeccable_. But it wasn’t what had overwhelmed him as much as the fact that McCree actually did that.  
Genji covered his flushing face with his free hand and breathed out loudly a few times.  
  
His heart was beating fast against his chest and for once it wasn’t painful.  
  
No, maybe that was the closest his crippled feelings ever could resemble the warmth of falling for someone.  
He chuckled, knowing that it wouldn’t last longer than perhaps a minute.  
But that minute felt like the best drug trip he had ever experienced in this miserable life, so Genji fully embraced it, like the bullet he had caught with his bare hand.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea of Genji injuring another agent for the sake of finishing a mission for quite a while. Originally I wanted to write it in a different kind of context, but I think his Blackwatch personality fit the whole thing more than at the present day. I might write more of these little short stories that happen within the universe of my bigger fanfiction project DarkSide which explores Genji and other characters in more depth while throwing them into a potential plot of how Overwatch's story could go on. 
> 
> Also yes - I cling very much to the Sociopathy headcanon for Genji. It is a very self-indulgent thing for me and I find a lot of comfort in him as a character. I know there are other interpretations but most of those I encounter in fandom isn't really appealing to me, but they're also valid.
> 
> I do recommend reading Athena Walker's explanation on the common misconception of sociopathic feelings, which has been another source of inspiration for me (and it totally makes sense to me in context of Genji's past): https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-sources-say-that-sociopaths-have-no-feelings/answer/Athena-Walker?ch=10&share=31a2b889&srid=hl9JZ
> 
>    
> Thanks to [mermaidhanji](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mermaidhanji/pseuds/mermaidhanji) for beta-reading and fixing up my stupid grammar. And thank YOU for reading. <3


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